Of prisons and prisoners…

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” Nelson Mandela

Image:Courtesy

I love a challenge. The kind that makes me want to think outside the box or maybe just throw away the box altogether and think. So when the opportunity presented I accepted the offer.

My task was simple. To build the capacity of prisoners with regard to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRH&R) and HIV/AIDS.

Prisoners are quite an interesting clientele, my former boss used to refer to them as a captive (pun not intended) audience, I just felt they were an interesting lot.

“Was I scared? ”

I like to think that I was not. I knew I was up to the task, but I was not certain how I would manage without making them feel more stigmatized given all the bad things I had either heard or seen about prisoners being uncouth, dangerous…